A Victorian vicarage was saved after plans to demolish the building for redevelopment were rejected by councillors at the Maldens and Coombe neighbourhood meeting.

The application to demolish the vicarage at Christ Church on Coombe Road in New Malden included plans to erect a new two-storey church hall extension and two-storey replacement parsonage.

The site development plans also included building five four-bedroom semi-detached houses, one 3-bedroom flat and one one-bedroom flat with 11 car parking spaces for the residential and parsonage units.

A unanimous vote by councillors at the meeting on May 18 rejected the plans for the vicarage which has not been lived in for five years.

Grounds for rejection included that the development was cramped and loss of trees would detract from the character of the area and the easternmost pair of residential buildings would be visually overbearing.

Councillor Patrick Codd said: “There is no doubt that the development should be refused on the basis that the basis that the officer has brought forward.”